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Returning from the grave essentially to get the pulse on something about JJ Abrams that has always annoyed me: his obsession with secrecy on his projects.

I can't speak on Lost, Revolution or Fringe; never saw them and have no interest in them as of now. I did enjoy Cloverfield, Super 8, and at least was entertained by Trek XI... but I did not find them worth the secrecy and suspense JJ assembled around them. In the end, all three were rather pedantic, dime a dozen action movies with some entertaining qualities, but nothing that left me "WOW! That was worth not knowing anything!" Cloverfield in particular was guilty of this for me; in the end, it's a monster rampaging through New York City. There wasn't much added to it or done with it that made it worth the hype he had going. Hell, the trailers and the exclusive clip were the same thing: the Statue of Liberty's head rolling down Broadway, albeit it re-cut with other bits mixed in here and there.

What I'm getting that is this: while I understand some want to go in unspoiled and totally shocked, and that some want to maintain surprise in an age where it's almost impossible, at the same time I find it annoying. If your response to my question "What are you doing?" on every project is to put your finger to your lips, go 'Shhhhhhhh!' and close a curtain... at a certain point, I will not care about your projects. And I feel like I reaching that point with Abrams. Especially with this "John Harrison" thing.

So, maybe I'm just whining, but I wanted to hear from you guys... is Abrams' secrecy MO tiresome, or working for you?

No problem at all. Speculation is fun. And it's impressive he does such a good job of keeping shit secret in the Internet age where everyone knows everything at all times.

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Pain or damage don't end the world. Or despair, or fucking beatings. The world ends when you're dead. Until then, you got more punishment in store. Stand it like a man... and give some back.

Right now, everything is speculation, and every bit of those mounds of speculation is something we can all argue/discuss/debate. As it is now, the sky is the limit when it comes to possible plots and character MO's.

HOWEVER, once the plot is revealed, those mounds of speculation go away, and all we are left with is the actual plot and the actual character motivations to nitpick (and ST fans are sure to nitpick the plot).

So from the movie studio's standpoint, the secrecy is good because it creates greater amounts of speculative buzz and a whole lot less nitpicking.

I really don't have a problem with it. My only problem was with Cloverfield. I liked the movie don't get me wrong, but there just was not enough of the monster in the movie. For all the secrecy of that movie the payoff was not large enough for me.